Canned pet foods are traditionally available in two forms; meat loafs and chunk-type products. The meat loafs are particularly well known. They are usually prepared by comminuting raw meat material and mixing it with water, salt, spices, curing agents, gelling agents and, if necessary, fats to provide a batter. The batter is then heated. The heated batter is then filled into cans to form, after retorting and cooling, a meat loaf.
These meat loaf products are popular because they are easily manufactured, readily digested, very palatable to animals, and are readily formulated to contain necessary nutrients and trace elements. However they are in the form of a uniform, homogeneous mass which lacks the striated and chunky appearance of meat. This may be a disadvantage for pet foods since a meat-like appearance can greatly enhance consumer acceptability.
The chunk-type products overcome this difficulty since they are formulated emulsions which simulate the appearance of meat. One example of these formulated emulsions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,939. The formulated meat emulsion described in the patent is produced by first forming a meat emulsion from a meat source. Dry ingredients such as dry proteinaceous materials (for example wheat gluten and soy flour), vitamins, minerals and the like are then mixed into the meat emulsion to provide a viscous emulsion. The viscous emulsion is then run through a high-speed emulsion mill in which the emulsion is rapidly heated to a temperature in the range of 102° C. to 118° C. The emulsion leaving the emulsion mill is fed to a holding tube where the protein in the emulsion coagulates to form a solid emulsion product. This solid emulsion product is then cut into chunks. The chunks are highly striated and resemble natural meat chunks in appearance and texture.
Another example of these formulated emulsions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,137. However, in this process the viscous emulsion is heated to a temperature of 40 to 70° C. in the emulsion mill; which is much lower than that in the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,939. The heated emulsion takes longer to coagulate and is therefore held in a holding tube for a longer time. The emulsion is then formed into strands and baked in an oven at a core temperature of 70 to 95° C.
Canned pet food products which are a combination of the meat loafs and the chunk-type products are also known. These products are formed of a matrix of the meat loaf surrounding pieces of formulated emulsion products.
However there is a need for canned pet food products which have new and interesting textures and appearances to further stimulate consumer interest.